Mma or Boxing?

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my 12 year old wrestled for 6 years, and has played football for 2. He was a great wrestler. And he's a monster on the football field. But I want him to learn hand to hand combat in the off season. Anyone here have there kids in either mma or boxing? What's the pros and cons of both? I think learning how to fight and defend is key now.

My second recommendation would be Judo. It focuses on using your opponents momentum against them and as long as it's only a one on one fight there are several excellent submission holds (IRL you would just break the arm instead of letting them tap out).

I've been trained in karate and think that while not the best CQC arts, it does go to great lengths to teach discipline and self control.

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There is no sense increasing the odds of concussions for a youngster. IMO they have the ability to get those on their own without the encouragement of mom and dad. My son is a Pro BMX rider and him and plenty of his friends suffer the effects. Check out Dave Mirra...sad end.

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I've been a BJJ nut for the last six years, first class and I was hooked. All four of my kid's train and are champion competitors. Clearly I'm just a little biased in my suggestion to pursue BJJ over other martial arts, including Japanese JiuJitsu.

A couple points you may want to consider. Wrestlers often have trouble switching over to BJJ and getting comfortable working off their back. It's not everyone, just something I have observed and worth thinking about.

Secondly, BJJ allows you to scale the force you apply as it is not dependent on striking which is worth considering in the lawsuit happy world we fight in. Additionally, the training is alot like wrestling in that it weeds out the BS as you are constantly rolling with live partners, either a technique works or you quickly find out its maybe a little too much wishful thinking. Like those death punches, neck breaks or eye gouges advocated by certain other disciplines. It's not like a guy can practice those... well, at least not enough to expect to be able to pull one off in a real fight.

Lastly, be aware there are alot of sport based BJJ gyms out there. Which is fine, just know what you are getting and don't mistake sport as something you'd be successful with in a fight.

Bottom line we have lots of choices out there these days, most all have something to offer, watch how they train and use your own BS detector.

They are still good for learning basic principles that can be built upon and because they do involve actual contact, way better than a lot of MA dancing around. There is plenty of time for a 12 year old to learn real combatives.

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I dunno - the judo class I took overseas was instantly one on one contact.

The karate teacher in the states taught fundamentals for half a year and then it was almost non stop sparing.

I've never taken Krav Magra but I know it add small weapons like batons and pens into pressure points.

The two arts I took were super strict about fundamentals but also a lot about your responsibility as someone who can now hurt others - similar to gun handling.

MMA was developed because of the first 30 UFC fights.

Boxing is a high impact to the head sport and I would never recommend that or American football because of that.

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In terms of ground, he's off to a huge head start with western wrestling. That said, there is only one final word in ground combatives: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

BJJ is king of ground. Period. It's not up for debate. Aikido and Judo practitioners had their chance and continue to have their chance to prove it and smaller BJJ practitioners repeatedly destroy them. That's what the original UFC was all about, actually testing different arts against each other. Some collegiate wrestlers can keep up with some BJJ guys... In the clinch and in the sprawl. Once it hits the mat, wrestlers are in the BJJ realm, game over.

In terms of standing game, you have way more viable options with much closer merit to each other than the ground game, which if I haven't emphasized enough yet, BJJ should be your only choice.

In standing, you learn to strike, and this is where almost all street fights start.

Western boxing is perfectly excellent for stand up game.

Other options that are just as viable, if not more, include Muay Thai, Krav Maga, and even some variations of traditional Asian arts like some schools of Shotokan Karate. I personally practice Sanshou, which is Chinese kickboxing.

The key to any of these is finding the right instructor. This is the hardest part.

My family is deep in Sanshou, my cousin is an extremely accomplished UFC fighter who claims Sanshou -- so I did not need to seek out a good coach.

BJJ is so popular these days, especially in MMA-crazy Oregon (we have some of the best MMA programs in the country), it can be hard to sort through the BS and get to the real deal stuff.

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Get on you tube and watch the Israelis train. I'm not sure "pulled punches" is in their vocabulary.
So,in MMA,everyone says what great athletes wrestlers are. They seem to learn to work harder than most others. I have met lots of wrestlers who loved to fight and did good cause they would "two leg" their opponents.
Then there is the Brazillian Ju Jitsu. The other thing that seems to be key in MMA.
It teaches patience also.A friend's brother attacked his kid and was bigger than the kid. The kid just waited for his uncle to make a wrong move and it was over.They were playing of course
Third is boxing. I think anyone who can learn a little about boxing movement has a big advantage in any fight
I never liked getting punched much so fighting wasn't my thing. I did some taekwando and other stuff (the instructor had about 6 different black belts) for only a year,but you can learn a lot about movement pretty fast
If your kid is a good athlete he should be able to pick any art up quickly.

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He told me they use weapons in the last fight for the belt. And like 5-6 dudes coming at you at once. This guy teaches LE daily and owns a gym. Helps a lot at the state prison with training. Good guy as well.

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